This post is in recognition of Cuba Music Week May 14-22, 2016, announced by the Archive of Contemporary Music in partnership with Columbia University Libraries, Rockamedia and the Internet Archive.Afro-Cuban Classical Composers and Musicians have been an important part of Cuban musical culture since the middle of the 19th century. Short biographies of three such individuals are found at the website AfriClassical.com. They are José Silvestre White (1835-1918), Amadeo Roldán y Gardes (1900-1939) and Leo Brouwer (b. 1939).

José Silvestre White, aka
José Silvestre White y Lafitte, was an Afro-Cuban composer,
violinist and professor. His mother was Afro-Cuban and his
father Spanish. Josephine Wright, Professor of Music at the
College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio has published an article
Violinist José White in Paris, 1855-1875, in Black Music
Research Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2, Fall 1990. Among White's recorded works is his Violin Concerto in F-sharp Minor (21:24), recorded by Rachel Barton, violin and the Encore Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Hege on Cedille Records 90000 035 (1997).

Amadeo Roldán y
Gardes was an Afro-Cuban composer, violinist, conductor and
professor. He was born on July 12, 1900. The late Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma,
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com, wrote about African heritage in
classical music for four decades. He tells us the composer was born in Paris to Cuban parents, and studied music in Spain before settling in Cuba, where he rose rapidly in the country's institutions of classical music during his short career.

Leo Brouwer was born in Havana, Cuba on March 1, 1939. His
enormous influence on guitar music in particular and classical
music in general is demonstrated by more than a hundred
recordings on which he has played, composed or conducted. Brouwer's compositions reflect classical, Afro-Cuban, jazz and
avant-garde influences. His many film scores have brought his
music to the attention of a huge audience around the world. Brouwer's influence in his native country results in part from
the important positions he has held in Cuban music institutions.

Leo Brouwer is credited with the founding of The Havana String Quartet in 1980. In 2011 the Quartet released a recording of Brouwer's four String Quartets and his String Trio on the Zoho Classix label. Fanfare Magazine was among the publications which reviewed the disc very favorably, and it won a Latin Grammy.

Maestro Brouwer's career as a conductor included the founding of the Orquesta de Cordoba in Spain, which he conducted for its first several years. Chamber Music Festivals and other music events are among his current activities. A 2016 release from Naxos is the CD Leo Brouwer: Music for Bandurria and Guitar.